Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 995 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Butterflies, Found Treasures & Zinnias

August 17, 2016 at 10:05 am by Claudia

I think…fingers crossed…that the hot and extremely humid weather we’ve been having for over a week and a half has broken. I’ll know more when I venture outside. For the first time in what seems to be a long time, the windows are open.

Yesterday, I glimpsed a butterfly near the butterfly bush. It seemed to be darker than the Eastern Swallowtails that hang around here. Could it be a Monarch, so rarely seen nowadays? I grabbed a camera, ran outside, verified that a gorgeous Monarch was perched on my bush and snapped a picture. Want to see it?

8-17 blurrymonarchbutterfly

It was so humid that my lens steamed up. By the time I realized it and wiped the lens, the Monarch was gone.

And then I surprised a hummingbird – twice – who was dining on the phlox. Again. The steamy lens.

That’s how frigging humid it was here yesterday. At one point, the clouds were covering the sun and I thought it was less humid than it actually was, so I decided to mow the corral. Thirty minutes later, dripping wet, I acknowledged that I had misjudged the atmospheric conditions.

Second shower of the day.

Today, however, I think we’ll be able to tackle the front lawn. Every blade of grass around here is at least 6 inches long. It’s making me crazy.

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I have this transferware plate that lives on the sideboard. It holds ‘found treasures.’ A fossil and seashells found in Florida and California, an agate, a crystal, a broken sand dollar, a pod, blue glass, broken china found on our property, birds eggs, a decorative nozzle also found on the property. The newest addition is the green teacup handle. Somehow these things just emerge from the ground after years of being buried. I found this in the Memorial Garden.

That’s a wild turkey feather on the left, along with another recently found feather.

As I said on Instagram a while back, these remind me of the treasures that Boo Radley painstakingly hides in the tree – gifts for Jem and Scout. Oh, that book, it melts my heart.

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A zinnia getting ready to open. The leaves on this one were being attacked by a darned Japanese Beetle. I thought they were gone for the season, so I was rather outraged when I found a beetle eating the leaves on one of my long awaited zinnias. Get out of here, Japanese Beetles! You have overstayed your welcome.

Don’t forget to check out my post on Replens and leave a comment for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card. Just click here! #ad

Heads up! Just got a message that Don’s episode of Mr. Robot airs tonight at 10 pm on USA!

Happy Wednesday.

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A Tech-ish Sort of Day

August 16, 2016 at 10:10 am by Claudia

Yesterday will now be labeled “Tech Day.”

It started off with Don and I taking turns as we waited for the FedEx guy to deliver Don’s new iPhone. It arrived while I happened to be out watering and I signed for it. Then came the ‘orientation session’ where I showed Don how to activate it, etc.

I know guys are supposed to be adept with all things high tech, but in our house, that role seems to be mine. I’m always a step or three or four ahead of Don and I guide him through these things, whether it’s the remote, or a laptop, or a phone. Once we ironed out a misstep with Don’s Apple ID number, we were good to go. I mentioned to Don that he might want to get a case as soon as possible, because the newer phones are slimmer and can quite easily be dropped.

Then I went upstairs to work on my new drawer unit. Shortly after that, Don called up to me, saying he thought he should get a case ASAP. So we jumped in the car and went to a Verizon store in a neighboring town.

Here is where it gets tech-ish. Don picked out his case. I wandered next door to the Rite-Aid to get a couple of things. I came back to the Verizon store and the woman who was helping us – she was really great – asked if we had a tempered glass insert to protect the glass on the iPhone. No, I didn’t, though I had certainly thought about getting one. Next thing I knew, we were both getting the tempered glass.

Then…she mentioned a special deal on iPads, specifically the iPad Air. Now, up until recently I had no desire for an iPad, thinking I had my phone and my laptop. But this was such a good deal (a slightly older model, just like our iPhone 6.) I knew I would use it a lot both here and on the road, where I could take it to rehearsals and use it for research and downtime. I love my phone and I use it all the time, but for research? I need a bigger screen. So, after gulping a bit, I went for it.

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And then felt guilty. Don, ever wonderful, urged me to get it and said he didn’t want to hear me expressing any regrets once we left the store.

Because he knows me.

The mobile version of the blog looks pretty good! After charging it last night, I synced it, and today I will spend some time getting to know the newest addition to my Apple family.

Still feeling guilty.

In other news, I did a little prettifying of the IKEA drawers:

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I am not a scrapbooker, but I do have a pad of scrapbook paper that’s been hanging around here for a while. So I cut the paper to fit the bottom of the drawer.

Each drawer uses a different design:

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Six drawers = six different designs.

Then I went back to something I had done in my youth – gosh I must have been sixteen or so when I got my first file cabinet – and cut the scrapbook paper to fit into the label slot on the front of the drawer. I did the same thing all those years ago. I cut a pretty piece of paper for the label, rather than use a boring old white label.

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Each label matches the paper in the drawer. Why? Just because I like it.

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And there you go!

In the midst of all this activity, I actually did put minis in each drawer.

Added note: I love the way you can see the Target Loft to the left. See the tiny chair? The loft is currently on the floor until I decide where to put it.

A tech day, plus a little prettifying.

Happy Tuesday.

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First and Last

August 15, 2016 at 9:52 am by Claudia

The first zinnia:

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They’ve been a long time coming. Next year, I am amending the soil in the chicken wire fence garden. It clearly needs some nutrients.

The last of the daylilies:

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I had two surprise blooms this week. That nicely extended the day lily season, but I’m pretty sure this is it.

It’s a soggy, humid mess out there. The hollyhock looks like it was struck down by some disease, it hasn’t been, but it is definitely done. The rain has been hard on all the flowers in the garden. There are weeds everywhere. It was cloudy yesterday morning, and it seemed cooler outside, so I grabbed the weed chomper and worked on the area surrounding the Funky Patio. At the end of five minutes or so, which also included some quick stabs at weeding, I was dripping.

Maybe this is nature’s way to slowly bring me around to the fact that September is a couple of weeks away. The garden looks bedraggled. I only have some much energy/desire to tackle it at this point in the summer. The humidity is stifling.

I’m not kidding. I think Mother Nature has a way of bringing us around to the realization that it’s almost over until next year. She breaks the news gently, but the facts stare us in the face and we have to admit defeat.

Though I’m still waiting on my morning glories and moonflowers and the rest of my zinnias.

Yesterday, I tackled the Helmer drawer unit from IKEA.

Can I just say that it was a pain in the tush? In the interest of total honesty, it was a pain in the tush because I had the drawer glides installed incorrectly and I didn’t realize it until I had cursed for over an hour as I tried to get the damn thing together. I finally realized my mistake and took the whole thing apart.

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It’s fine now. It’s very inexpensive and, therefore, the quality is fairly flimsy, but it will do until I can afford something else. Or even want something else. By the way, the screws that attach the casters to the base won’t go into the base correctly. They, my friends, were also a pain in the tush.

Little Z’s dollhouse should be a breeze compared to this.

We’re going to try to mow a bit this morning before it gets real hot. The grass is so long – everywhere – and there is still rain in the forecast for this week, so we have to grab any non-rainy time we can get.

Don’s getting a new iPhone today and he’s very excited. He’s been using an older model, much smaller than the one I have, and he needs something bigger and faster. He’s a big guy and he’s got big hands. Since he was eligible for an upgrade, his shiny new phone will be delivered to our door today.

Happy Monday.

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Butterflies, Found Treasures & Zinnias

A Tech-ish Sort of Day

First and Last

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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